The main objective of the Ancient Abbey of Brittany Project has been to continue the work of Jules Henry Geslin de Bourgogne,and Anatole de Barthélémy who, in their Anciens Évêchés de Bretagne (6 vols, Saint-Brieuc, Guyon, 1855-1879), provided partial editions of the charters of several medieval abbeys situated in the area now known as Côtes-d’Armor: the Cistercian abbeys of Bégard, Saint-Aubin-des-Bois, Boquen, Bonrepos and the Premonstratensian abbey of Beauport. More generally AABP encourages the edition, publication and study of sources originating from or pertaining to Medieval Abbeys of Western Europe.
Claude Lucette Evans and Kenneth Paul Evans are the founding members of this project. The AABP website is administered at York University where Kenneth Paul Evans, an academic accountant, is a faculty member.
The first phase of this project culminated in Claude Evans' publication of L’abbaye cistercienne de Bégard, des origines à 1476: histoire et chartes, ARTEM 16, (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012).
HISTORY AND MISSION
In 2014 AABP sponsored the International Conference, Cistercians and Canons Regular in Medieval Brittany, Normandy, England and Wales held at York University on May 1 and at /The University of Toronto on May 2. The Proceedings have been published as Cistercians and Regular Canons in Medieval Western Europe, Nottingham Medieval Studies 65 (2021), Special issue, ed. by Claude Lucette Evans and Kenneth Paul Evans, 478 pp.
In 2016 AABP sponsored the International Conference, Monasteries, convergences, exchanges and confrontations in the West of Europe in the Middle Ages/Monastères, convergences, échanges et confrontations dans l’Ouest de l’Europe au Moyen Âge held at the University of Toronto Mississauga on May 5 and at /The University of Toronto St George on May 6. The Proceedings have been published under the title Monastères, convergences, échanges et confrontations dans l’Ouest de l’Europe au Moyen Âge, ed. by Claude Lucette Evans and Kenneth Paul Evans, HAMA 45, Turnhout, Brepols, 2023, 387 pp.
In 2017 Claude and Paul Evans were co-organizers of the UBS Conference Familles, pouvoirs et foi en Bretagne et dans l’Ouest de l’Europe à l’époque médiévale (Ve – XVe siècle) / Families, powers and faith in the west of Europe (Vth – XVth century), Université de Bretagne-sud in Lorient, Abbaye de Landévennec, April 27-29, where they also gave papers.
From 2014 to 2019 AABP sponsored sessions in two International
Conferences:International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.
-2014 “Premonstratensian Houses: their Foundations, Socio-economic and Cultural History”
-2015, "Teaching History of the Language and Medieval Languages: A Multidisciplinary Roundtable"
-2016 “Origins and Practices of Religious Houses in Brittany, Normandy and Anjou”
-2017 ‘Cistercian Abbeys of Brittany” (Co-sponsored with the Cistercian Institute)
-2018 -Changing Landscapes and Images: New Collaborative Projects in Ecclesiastical
History: Monasticon Aquitaniae Mont-Saint-Michel, Milbreteur (l’an MIL en BRETagne et en EURope), Beauport Abbey (A Roundtable)
-2019 “Episcopal and Papal Influences on Monasteries of Western Europe”
International Medieval Conference, University of Leeds
-2013 "White Canons of Brittany and Lincolnshire"
-2015 “Monastic houses of Brittany I: reconstruction, reform, norms and deviance” and
"Monastic houses of Brittany II: Material Culture"
-2016 “Everyday Life in religious Houses of Normandy and Brittany”.
-2017 “Money makes the (Monastic) World go round Financial Use and Abuse of Monasteries and Their Benefactors in Medieval Europe”. (Co-sponsored with the Monastic Wales Project) and “Breton Cartularies: new editions, new perspectives”
-2018 “Monasticon Aquitaniae; The Mont-Saint-Michel Project; Milbreteur (l’an Mil en Bretagne et en Europe): Three New and Interdisciplinary Projects” – A Round Table Discussion"
-2019 "Premonstratensians and Cistercians: Material and Local Culture"
The second phase of the Ancient Abbeys of Brittany Project focuses on Notre-Dame-de Beauport, the only Premonstratensian abbey in Brittany and on its predecessor, the Victorine island monastery of Saint-Rion. It will culminate in Claude Evans' publication of , a two-volume edition of 575 charters originating from or pertaining to Beauport Abbey.
Chartes des abbayes de Saint-Rion (O.S.V.) et de Beauport (O. Praem.) (vers 1088- 1305) : privilèges pontificaux, sphères d’influence des évêques de Saint-Brieuc, Dol, Tréguier et Lincoln (Introductionedition of 170 charters), vol. 1
Chartes des abbayes de Saint-Rion (O.S.V) et de Beauport (O.Praem.) (vers 1088- 1305) : donations, ventes, échanges, partages et emprunts (edition of 405 charters. Index of place and personal names), vol. 2.
Expected date of publication: 2024.
